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Headshot of Christopher Ward

Christopher Ward

Democrat, State Assembly
District 78, San Diego
Time in office:
  • Assembly: 2020-present

Bio

Chris Ward, 48, was co-author of a bill, modeled after Texas’s abortion legislation, that aims to open gun manufacturers up to lawsuits from victims of gun violence. He was appointed in 2023 to head the Assembly housing committee. Prior to his election to the Assembly, he was on the San Diego City Council. He was chief of staff to former Assemblymember and Senator Marty Block. He’s a member of the Assembly LGBTQ caucus. He was an environmental planner at the firm EDAW. He has a degree from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in public policy and urban planning from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He and his partner have two children and a cairn terrier.

Leader Badges

Housing Badge

Ideology

Left

Moderate

Right

Bill Activity

0

Of 3 bills:
 Passed
 Failed
3 Pending

For this session year, this legislator initiated 3 bills: None passed, None failed, and 3 are currently pending.

Alignment Meter

See all-time percentage of this legislator’s alignment with any organization based on total votes.

xx%votes: xx

Financials

This feature tracks three sources of money intended to help a candidate win election: 1-Money given directly to a candidate’s committee, 2-Money given to an Independent Expenditure Committee, 3-Money given to a political party. (NOTE: Senators are elected every four years. Twenty of the 40 Senators are on the ballot in even-numbered years, so Senators may do little or no fundraising in the first two-year session of their Senate term).

Election

This display shows money given directly to the incumbent’s campaign committee (NOTE: The industry categories for donors come from Open Secrets, a nonpartisan research organization for campaign finance. Some contributions are “uncoded,” meaning they have not been assigned to an industry sector. As a result, the total for each sector is also an estimate).

Agriculture

$1.5K

Communications & Electronics

$25.7K

Construction

$9.3K

Energy & Natural Resources

$29.3K

Finance, Insurance & Real Estate

$65.3K

General Business

$32.8K

Government Agencies/Education/Other

$78.1K

Health

$75.5K

Ideology/Single Issue

$18.5K

Labor

$183.6K

Lawyers & Lobbyists

$8.0K

Transportation

$5.5K

Uncoded

$138.4K

Unitemized Contributions

$104.0

Candidate Donations

Individuals, corporations, organizations and committees are limited to a maximum donation to candidates of $5,500 for the primary and for the general elections.

Total
$671.5K

11.0% lower than the average legislators

Grand Total for Elections

$671.5K

11.0% lower than the average legislators

This is a total of the money to help this legislator win office including direct donations to the candidate, money from Independent Expenditure Committees and money from political parties.


Influence

There are three categories of donations to legislators after they are elected that encourage a working relationship between the donor and the legislator. The three categories are: 1-Gifts, 2-Travel, 3-Behests.

Giver
Value
Date
Description
Viejas Tribal Council$300Apr 22, 2022hotel stay
Illumina Geomics$193.75Sep 28, 2022Event Admission
San Diego Labor Council$150May 16, 2022lunch
California Jewish Legislative Caucus Leadership Foundation$142.77Aug 16, 2022Dinner
Downtown San Diego Partnership$105Mar 24, 2022Food and drink
CA Legislative LGBT Foundation$99.53Jun 8, 2022Pride Celebration
California Faculty Association$95.18Apr 19, 2022Food and Drink
Equality California$90Mar 22, 2022Awards
San Diego State University$78.12Oct 3, 2022tickets
California Democratic Party$67.87Aug 16, 2022Lunch
Showing 1-10 of 26 rows

Personal Gifts

Legislators are not allowed to accept gifts of more than $10 per month from registered lobbyists. Gifts from any other single source are limited to $590 in a calendar year.

Gift Received Rating
#30/120

This legislator is ranked 30th highest for the amount of personal gifts received.

Committees

Most of the policy work in the state Capitol is done in “Standing” committees. Legislators also work on budget subcommittees. There are also “Special” and “Select” committees with a more narrow topic focus. And there are “Joint” committees with members from the Senate and Assembly.

Hearings

Featured Comments

Below are links to the video and transcript of recent, substantive comments by this legislator in committee hearings or floor sessions.

Preview image for AB 30242MIN
Aug 31, 2024

AB 3024

Civil rights.

Preview image for AB 18581MIN
Aug 31, 2024

AB 1858

Comprehensive school safety plans: active shooters: armed assailants: drills.

Preview image for AB 269445SEC
Aug 29, 2024

AB 2694

Density Bonus Law: residential care facilities for the elderly.

Preview image for AB 309350SEC
Aug 29, 2024

AB 3093

Land use: housing element.

Preview image for AB 259754SEC
Aug 29, 2024

AB 2597

Planning and zoning: revision of housing element: regional housing need allocation appeals: Southern California Association of Governments.

Preview image for AB 188448SEC
Aug 28, 2024

AB 1884

Pupil attendance: excused absences: uniformed services deployments.

Preview image for AB 235346SEC
Aug 27, 2024

AB 2353

Property taxation: welfare exemption: delinquent payments: interest and penalties.

Preview image for AB 28321MIN
Aug 22, 2024

AB 2832

Economic development: international trade and investment.

Preview image for AB 309320MIN
Jul 2, 2024

AB 3093

Land use: housing element.

Preview image for AB 19551H
Jun 27, 2024

AB 1955

Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act.

Preview image for AB 19551H
Jun 26, 2024

AB 1955

Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act.

Preview image for AB 16358MIN
Jun 25, 2024

AB 1635

Hillcrest property: leasing: housing development projects.

View All Hearings

District

View of map with yellow overlay for Assembly District 78 boundaries.
District 78 is a Safe Democratic District
Democratic Party candidate has a very high likelihood of winning in an election

Previous Election:

Chris Ward
100%
WON

Party Registration

Census Data

Median age0102030

Median age